Chapter 37: The Weight of Kinship and a Disturbing Discovery

Su Mian woke up the next morning feeling utterly drained, as if all his strength had been sapped away, and an unusual fatigue clung to him.

Overwhelmed, he slept soundly until one or two in the afternoon, perfectly missing both breakfast and lunch.

Even after waking, he simply lay in bed, unwilling to stir.

After all, it was a hard-earned holiday, and all he wanted was to sprawl out and do nothing.

He aimlessly scrolled through his phone until the sky outside the window gradually darkened and his stomach began to rumble. Only then did he reluctantly push himself out of bed.

After washing up, he opened his door and entered the living room, where his gaze immediately fell upon Su Baixue sitting on the sofa.

She had deep, prominent dark circles under her eyes, her face looked haggard, and her gaze was vacant. Her entire demeanor exuded an air of utter despair.

‘Had his sister perhaps not slept a wink all night?’ Su Mian wondered to himself.

He had initially intended to ask about her situation, but remembering her various erratic behaviors during her recent “rebellious phase,” he swallowed the words before they could leave his lips.

It was better to avoid trouble.

Su Baixue, indeed, had not slept a wink the entire night.

Xiao Moyuan’s blunt and hurtful words from yesterday pierced her heart like thorns, leaving her tossing and turning, unable to find sleep.

Now, upon seeing Su Mian, the pent-up frustration and resentment, with no other outlet, instinctively shifted to this ‘culprit.’

‘If it weren’t for Su Mian, how would she have had that conversation with Senior Moyuan yesterday?’

‘And how would it have led to that humiliating scene in the end?’

She could have slowly gotten to know Xiao Moyuan, waiting until she was excellent enough to become a Class B Exorcist before making a formal confession. Now, everything was in disarray.

Watching Su Mian head towards the kitchen to find something to eat, a surge of irrational anger flared within her.

She abruptly stood up, strode over to him in a few steps, and slammed her hand forcefully on the dining table, producing a sharp ‘bang.’

“Su Mian, I’m warning you!” Her voice was hoarse from lack of sleep and laced with fury. “You are never to bother Xiao Moyuan again! Do you hear me?!”

At that moment, their parents had stepped out on an errand, leaving only the two of them at home.

Su Mian felt a headache beginning to throb.

He himself had been feeling stifled and distressed lately, and now his sister, far from being understanding, was constantly siding with an outsider.

Suppressing the anger rising within him, he tried to keep his voice as calm as possible.

“Xiaoxue,” he began, “I don’t know why you know Xiao Moyuan, nor do I care where you heard that I caused him trouble. But I want to tell you, you are my sister. Why do you always take the side of outsiders?”

Su Baixue, still seething with rage, spoke without thinking, blurting out, “Su Mian, you’re not my brother! You’re the outsider!”

Su Mian froze, his face etched with astonishment.

Naturally, he didn’t take her words seriously, dismissing them as the thoughtless outburst of a temperamental sister.

Yet, the words themselves sounded truly outrageous.

A sense of powerlessness washed over him. Perhaps he had been too lenient with her all this time, allowing her to grow increasingly audacious.

‘What was that saying again? ‘An elder brother is like a father.’ Should he not act more like a proper elder brother?’

Driven by a sudden impulse, he raised his hand, intending to give her a light tap—just enough to make her understand she shouldn’t speak that way.

However, as he looked at his sister’s face, marked by dark circles and etched with stubbornness and indignation, he ultimately couldn’t bring himself to do it.

Under Su Baixue’s shocked gaze, the ‘slap’ landed incredibly lightly; it was more a caress than a strike.

Nevertheless, Su Baixue recoiled as if burned, stepping back abruptly. Her cheeks instantly flushed crimson with a mix of shame and rage. “Su Mian! You… you scoundrel! How dare you touch my face?!”

Su Mian opened his mouth, intending to explain. But could he really say he had meant to hit her but couldn’t bring himself to do it?

That would sound even more absurd.

Su Baixue was utterly enraged by his action, and the emotions she had suppressed from last night erupted in an instant. Instinctively, a faint yet undeniable power coalesced in her palm.

She hadn’t even fully registered what she was doing, merely pushing in Su Mian’s direction out of pure instinct.

Su Mian felt an invisible force slam into him, throwing him off balance. The world spun around him as he stumbled back several steps, only managing to stop when he collided heavily with the wall behind him.

His back ached intensely from the impact, and he stared at Su Baixue, utterly dumbfounded.

‘What was happening?!’

‘When did his sister’s combat power become so outrageous?’

‘Her private school… did they teach martial arts?’

Su Baixue, having regained her senses, also stood stunned. Seeing Su Mian wincing in pain after hitting the wall, she realized she had impulsively used her spiritual power and gone too far.

A flicker of regret crossed her mind, and she almost reached out to help him. However, her fierce pride and lingering anger prevented her from doing so.

In the end, she merely shot Su Mian a fierce glare, bit her lip, and turned to run back to her room, slamming the door shut once more.

Su Mian slowly straightened himself, leaning against the wall, his entire body aching as if his bones were coming apart.

He gazed at his sister’s tightly closed door, his mind a whirlwind of confusion.

‘His sister’s current state was proving to be just as troublesome as Xiao Moyuan’s situation.’

“Tomorrow… I should just go back to school early,” he sighed, feeling that even his home was no longer a peaceful sanctuary.

After quickly grabbing something to eat to sate his hunger, Su Mian suddenly remembered that Shen Zhixia hadn’t replied to his messages since yesterday.

‘Should he ask her to see a movie tonight?’

‘After all, he was home now, and Xiao Moyuan wouldn’t be around to interfere.’

He picked up his phone and dialed Shen Zhixia’s number.

“Zhixia, are you home yet?” He tried to make his voice sound light and natural. “I saw there’s a well-reviewed movie out for the Mid-Autumn Festival lineup. The nine o’clock showing tonight—want to go see it together?”

From the other end of the line, Shen Zhixia’s voice came through, sounding somewhat fatigued, even tinged with a strange breathiness. “A’Mian… I didn’t go back for Mid-Autumn this year, I’m still in N City…”

Before she could finish her sentence, a stifled, ambiguous hum suddenly sounded through the receiver. Immediately after, the call was abruptly disconnected, leaving only the ‘beep-beep’ of a busy signal.

Su Mian held his phone, his mind slightly dazed.

‘What was with Zhixia’s voice just now?’

‘He thought he’d vaguely heard a man’s presence nearby?’

A thought, completely unbidden, sprang into his mind: ‘Could that man be Xiao Moyuan?’

The idea that the two of them might be spending the Mid-Autumn Festival together in N City, perhaps even engaging in intimate activities, weighed heavily on Su Mian’s heart, leaving him feeling suffocated and pained.

Unable to sit still, he almost instinctively picked up his phone and opened Xiao Moyuan’s WeChat.

[Sweetheart Marshmallow: Gege, what are you doing?]

He stared intently at the screen, awaiting a reply.

Five minutes passed…

Ten minutes passed…

An hour passed…

This prolonged, unrequited wait made every second feel like a year.

The earlier suspicion that Xiao Moyuan and Shen Zhixia were together grew increasingly certain in his mind.

***

Meanwhile, deep within a dimly lit and secluded alley in N City.

After Shen Zhixia hung up the phone, it slipped from her weakened hand and fell to the ground.

She leaned against the cold wall, breathing faintly.

“You… you bastard,” she muttered, turning her head to complain to the dense shadow behind her. “To do that while I was on the phone…”

From the shadows, a blurry figure slowly drew closer, having just lifted its head from her neck. Its tongue darted out, licking at a non-existent trace of blood on its lips, seemingly savoring the taste.

“The targets you’ve been finding lately, is their blood quality always this poor?” The shadowy figure’s voice carried a hint of disdain.

Shen Zhixia adjusted her disheveled collar, her tone tinged with helplessness. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a healthy male target in this day and age?”

The shadowy figure scoffed. “Those you lure with your methods are naturally all inferior specimens, drowned in their own desires.”

Shen Zhixia’s face remained impassive; she said nothing. Deep down, she still clung to a sliver of her human morality, which was why she always chose targets who were already impure of heart and coveted her beauty.

They desired her body, and she desired their bodies for blood. It was a fair exchange.

Only by rationalizing it this way did Shen Zhixia feel a little better.

She retorted, “This is the only ability I have right now. Since you’re so particular, why don’t you go find those healthy, clean targets yourself?”

The shadowy figure seemed to be in a relatively good mood tonight, as it uncharacteristically offered an explanation. “Directly feeding on male blood—the thought of piercing their skin with my teeth just disgusts me. The targets I actively hunt are always female.”

He then shifted the topic, his voice taking on an eerie excitement. “However… I have recently discovered an exception, a target I feel I can make an exception for.”

Recalling the incredibly alluring, pure aura emanating from the young man on the high-speed train, the shadowy figure even trembled slightly with excitement.

A shiver ran down Shen Zhixia’s spine. “You truly are the most perverse being I’ve ever encountered.”

The shadowy figure remained unfazed, instead letting out a low chuckle. “Heh heh, how many of our kind are truly normal? If I hadn’t been bored for a moment, do you think you would have attained eternal life?”

He paused, his tone turning cautionary. “Let me remind you again: this month, you’ve already ‘dealt with’ four people. The Exorcist Academy must have noticed by now. If you attract any truly troublesome individuals, I won’t be able to protect you.”

“If you could just control your base savagery a little, you wouldn’t need to take a life every time. That would not only be more discreet but also give you the chance to taste… superior blood.”

How could Shen Zhixia not want to control herself?

Yet, every time she fed on blood, that primal, feral craving would overwhelm her reason, making it impossible to stop.

It seemed she would have to find a way to learn to control her desire for blood.

She looked at the phone on the ground, its screen now dark, her eyes filled with a complex expression.